Could You Become a Millionaire Just By Walking?

I walk a lot (or at least try). When I was living in Europe, I walked for 4 hours a day, often for fun. However, now that I live in unwalkable suburbia somewhere in the rancid armpit of Coal Country, Pennsylvania, I’ve been having some trouble incentivizing myself to get all the walking done that I otherwise would have if I were back in the Old World. Naturally, because of this, I’ve looked into walking rewards apps to incentivize myself to get those steps up. This is not an ad for those sorts of apps. They’re predatory advertisement-slave apps that definitely sell your personal data. The ads you receive on them are scammy and usually prioritize gambling or other money-making apps that would just make you watch more ads. Even when you have enough points to claim an award, the cash-out feature is often laden with delays, and sometimes you don’t even receive your money. However, let’s transport ourselves to an ideal world, where the rate of point acquisition remains the same, and the cashout thresholds remain the same, but the cashout is at least reliable. How long and how far would I have to walk to become a millionaire?

I am not intimately familiar with all of the walking apps, so I will use the one I’m currently on to make things easier. Let’s assume that in order to claim a five dollar payout, you first have to earn 3,000 points. Let’s assume further that in order to earn one point, you need to walk 100 steps. This puts the effective value of a dollar at 600 points, and the step count to reach a dollar at an effective 60,000 steps. The recommended average daily number of steps for the normal person to take is about 10,000. So, naturally, the average person trying to gain a better habit will reach that cashout threshold in around 30 days, or one month of real-world time. I, however, am not the average person. Again, when I lived in Europe, I was averaging about 4 hours a day just walking for fun.

I know for a fact that I average about 10,000 steps every 90 minutes of focused walking. That puts me at the cashout threshold in seven and a half hours. But I’m not asking how long til I’m at the cashout threshold. I want to be a millionaire. So let’s make like captive rabbits and multiply to insane degrees. Sixty thousand steps per dollar, multiplied by one million, comes out to sixty billion steps. That is seven and a half million hours of walking, or 312,500 days, or about 860 years. I doubt those million dollars will keep pace with inflation. Furthermore, at 60 billion steps, at a gait of around ⅔ meters per step, that puts the distance at 40 million kilometers, which is more than ten times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. I would have to circle the Earth a thousand times.

But let’s ease the goal a little bit. I don’t need a million dollars. I’ve often said that if I want enough money to retire on, with the right high-yield dividend investments, I could live on around $60,000. So let’s see how that compares. Already things get a little easier. It’s only 450,000 hours of walking. That’s merely 18,750 days. Barely 52 years. That’s still within my lifespan. I could start walking now, and retire when I’m 80. That’s better than I’m on track to retire now, which is—let me do some calculations—never.

Suffice to say, these walking apps will not make you a millionaire. However, if you are that desperate to try them, I at least recommend WalkTask over the others. Other apps like these have a 10,000 step limit, but I haven’t noticed a limit on WalkTask. The ads are easier to avoid. But, as I said, cashout is often delayed or overcomplicated. My referral code is UMR4DQ. I have no idea what benefit that has for either of us.